The White House launched a new program Monday aimed at spurring entrepreneurship at the small business level.
Entitled “Start Up America,” the initiative seeks to permanently eliminate capital gain taxes that passed under the small business bill passed last year, invest $2 billion in small businesses in underserved communities, provide training programs and streamline the patent process.
The administration will coordinate the efforts with the private sector. AOL co-founder Steven Case and Kauffman Foundation CEO Carl Schramm have both been announced as partners, as have Intel, HP, IBM and Facebook. $400 million has already been invested via the private sector.
Gene Sperling, the Director of the National Economic Council, remarked Monday that the current fiscal environment compounds the importance of the initiative.
“More than half the companies in the Fortune 500 in ‘09 started during a recession,” Sperling said during an event to kick-off the program. “It is these times when people come together and take a chance.”
The program is being cast by the White House as one step toward the fulfillment of President Obama’s State of the Union pledge to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.